Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: NHL-Prospects

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman received almost $8 million in salary and benefits during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, according to the league’s most recent tax filing, up from a total compensation of $7.5 million the previous year.

added 9:50am, SBJ opened the link to all so you can continue reading if you desire…

It seemed to be the general consensus of the hockey media going into the 2011 NHL Entry Draft in St. Paul, Minnesota, that this was potentially the deepest draft class since 2003. With top notch prospects at spots 1-8 (and even potentially picks 9 and 10 depending on who you asked), and then the next tier of talent was considered to be a bit of a free for all when it came to the next 30-40 picks, and the general vibe I got from teams in the first round, and early into the second round, was that there was indeed a tremendous value on early picks (mid to late first round), as well as almost any pick in the second round, and even leading up to and into the early third round picks, until the next major level of drop off in pure potential. As such, this resulted in quite a few teams being very active when it came to making trades involving any potential pick(s) from this vastly large pool of “second tier” prospects.

A loooooong holiday weekend (and what I call “The Griswold Effect”) put yours truly in quite the tizzy and delayed last week’s look at the Southeast Division’s AHL affiliates off until late last night. (It also completely stymied my intended follow-up to Saturday morning’s piece about the Washington Capitals 6-0 drubbing of the Tampa Bay Lightning being a sobering dose of reality for the Bolts, which was to be about the dissatisfaction of Saturday night’s shootout loss to Florida. Oh well… Moving on…)

The latest episode of The Bolts Beat podcast will post this evening, so keep your eyes peeled for that. (I’m back in studio this week and ready to blast a few people.)

Lots to catch up on from the American League last week (including a wild, 10-8 game between Grand Rapids and Chicago, which is worth at least a look at the box score for Tomas Tatar’s 7-point showing), so let’s get right to it:

It’s time once again to have a look toward the future by recapping the week that was for the Southeast Division’s AHL affiliates. We’re on track this week, with much less to catch up on than our debut last Thursday, so this should go much more smoothly.

The latest attempt to analyze players is psychological examinations. The League provided a five-minute test at the 2008 NHL Scouting Combine, coordinated by Dr. Ralph Tarter of EXACT Sports, with the results made available to all 30 teams. [...]

“What we’re using are three normed and validated, and American Psychological Association-approved, psychological tests that measure normal personalities,” [former NHL player Joe] Day said. “We’re not looking at any pathology. … It’s measuring normal adult behavior. Two of the instruments we use measure traits. Are you a dominant or aggressive person? Are you highly assertive? Another one measures emotional intelligence. So while you could be dominant and aggressive in social situations, with a high level of emotional intelligence you should be able to channel those traits appropriately to the context or situation. So it’s a nice blend.”

read on for a look at how the Blackhawks in particular are expanding their use of psych testing

Hockey bloodlines, you see, are notoriously accurate in predicting which players you might take a harder look at in the annual draft. This year is no different. For instance:

* Alex Pietrangelo will be the first player picked in this draft who has ties to the game. His dad’s second cousin is Frank Pietrangelo, who was a goaltender in the NHL for many years with Pittsburgh and Hartford.

After Stamkos, the next five North American skaters are all defenceman. But the order in which they will be drafted depends on whom you ask and when.

According to Central Scouting, Peterborough’s Bogosian is ranked the highest at second overall. Four months earlier Guelph’s Doughty (third) was the top-ranked defenceman. One league scout believes Kelowna’s Tyler Myers (fourth) has the potential to become the best of the bunch five years down the road, while another puts Kelowna’s Schenn (fifth) and Niagara’s Pietrangelo (sixth) at the top because they are the most NHL-ready.

“There’s no slot after No. 1,” said Rick Dudley, assistant general manager of the Chicago Blackhawks. “With most organizations, there’s a difference of opinion over who’s the second to sixth player in this draft. That’s a little unusual.”

Trying to choose between five defencemen who have the capability of becoming franchise players is so difficult that teams are asking the players themselves for advice.

I’m currently up in Toronto for two purposes. The first was to have the chance to meet Steven Stamkos and his family, which I did on Thursday night. The other was to swing by the combine today for the physical testing of the top prospects, including Stamkos, to find out about this VO2 bike test they put the prospects through, which has barf buckets right next to the bikes. Look for that story in Saturday’s paper.

As far as Stamkos goes, he certainly seems like one of the nicest high-profile teenagers you might ever meet. Spent just over two hours at the family house outside of Toronto and had some great conversations. Very humble family and you can see how that has carried over to Steven. Despite all the heavy marketing the Lightning have already done with Stamkos, they still answer everything with “if Tampa Bay drafts’’. They are taking nothing for granted, and that’s just how they are, they don’t want to get ahead of anything.

Over 100 of the top prospects available in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft are in Toronto to take part in the league’s Combine. The players will take part in physical testing and most have a series of interviews set up with representatives from NHL clubs.

TSN is at the combine, too, and will file reports on the various activities throughout the day in this Combine Blog.

9:39 - The NHL annual meat market is already well underway with one group having completed the physical testing portion. The prospects are all wearing heart monitors so their heartbeats can be tracked during the workouts.

My name is Zach Bogosian and I play junior hockey for the Peterborough Petes in the Ontario Hockey League. This is my draft year for the NHL and I am currently rated No. 3 among North American skaters in NHL Central Scouting’s mid-term rankings. NHL.com has asked me to do a blog about my experiences leading up to the NHL Entry Draft this June in Ottawa.